Africa-Press – South-Africa. The Bulls were the slowest South African side to adapt to the rigours of Super Rugby, but when they did, they became the most reliable playoff side.
With them hosting the Sharks in their United Rugby Championship quarter-final at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday, their ability to win playoff games is unparalleled.
They’re three-time Super Rugby champions and one of those finals, rather dramatically, was won in Durban.
They’ve demonstrated their finals ability, but that came after the pain of being winless in the 2002 Super 12 campaign and countless other underwhelming seasons.
Here’s a roll of failed playoffs where the Bulls expectedly (and once unexpectedly), came off second best:
19 May 1996 – Blues 48-11 Bulls –
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This margin of defeat was as wide as the gulf between these teams suggested. The Graham Henry-coached Blues were way ahead of the rest.
There also was the significant matter of the late Jonah Lomu to contend with and with the late Joost van der Westhuizen being moved to wing based on his bravery against the big winger.
However, the Blues weren’t one-trick ponies and displayed this at Eden Park in Auckland.
This was the Bulls’ last playoff appearance for exactly nine years as they went through the Super Rugby thresher.
21 May 2005 – Waratahs 23-13 Bulls
After embarrassing losses and the famed 2002 Super 12 campaign where they became the first side not to win a regular-season game, the Bulls were on their first step towards their 2007 success.
They showed signs of life in the 2003 and 2004 campaigns, where they were sixth in both years but truly stepped up in this campaign.
On the back of three consecutive Currie Cup titles, they were the form South African team, but being slow starters, they’d lose their opening game to the Cats, which would be their only loss in a South African derby that year.
They lost four of their first five games but went on a mazy winning run that saw them finish third, but that would require a trip to Sydney to face the Waratahs, who’d beaten them 42-12 earlier.
They narrowed the margin to 10 points in the semi-finals against a strong ‘Tahs side, but the Bulls meant business.
20 May 2006 – Crusaders 35-15 Bulls
The early to mid-2000s produced a Crusaders side that is the best ever Super Rugby side. In the 2000-2010 period, they only failed once to reach the playoffs and went through the 2002 campaign unbeaten.
The Bulls, though, had developed into formidable adversaries, but with no SA team having won in Christchurch since 1996, the Bulls were on a hiding to nothing.
The Bulls were also unnecessarily generous at home, losing three games out of their overall five defeats in the season that saw them finish fourth.
One of those losses was a 35-17 reverse at the hands of the Crusaders.
A Sunday newspaper carried a headline of ‘Crusaderfied’, which summed up the dominance of Robbie Deans’ side.
28 July 2012 – Crusaders 28-13 Bulls –
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After the 2007 success, the Bulls had quite the hangover in 2008 but bounced back in 2009 and 2010 in no uncertain terms with back-to-back titles.
Coaching mastermind Heyneke Meyer had left and while the handover to Frans Ludeke was initially smooth, Meyer’s belated transition to the Bok coaching job meant Ludeke didn’t have the brains trust that worked for him.
This led to the inevitable decline, even though it wasn’t too evident in the 2012 campaign wherein finishing second behind the Stormers in the SA conference, they were sixth in the overall log.
This meant they needed to travel to New Zealand to win a playoff. History was against the Bulls and it proved so as they left with their tails in between their legs.
27 July 2013 – Bulls 23-26 Brumbies –
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This is probably their most galling playoff defeat and one where they simply self-destructed. They weren’t convincing throughout the season but still remained a competitive side that was the best SA could offer.
Being the best SA side meant they could skip the first playoff week, where the Cheetahs were unfortunate to lose to Jake White’s Brumbies.
Then the meltdown came as Bulls captain Dewald Potgieter turned down three consecutive kickable penalties for line-out drives that weren’t successful.
Then Tevita Kuridrani punctured Loftus with a 79th-minute try that saw the Brumbies having to fly back across the Indian Ocean to face the Chiefs in a final they lost.
White, who then went to coach the Sharks, is now at the Bulls, but such was the decline of the Bulls, they wouldn’t reach a Super Rugby playoff for six years when the Hurricanes beat them in Wellington.
They rifled through coaches until they settled on White, who also has a score to settle with playoff rugby.
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